Device for the continuous determination and recording of the cant of a railway track



July 25, 1939. MAUZIN 2,167,081 DEVICE FOR THE CONTINUOUS DETERMINATION AND RECORDING OF THE CANT OF A RAILWAY TRACK Filed Jan. 15, 1937 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 l an enror ANDRE ERNEST MAUZIN I 6W1)? q awn-near:

July 25, 1939.- MAUZlN I 2,167,081

DEVICE FOR THE CONTINUOUS DETERMINATION AND RECORDING OF THE CANT OF A RAILWAY TRACK Filed Jan. 15, 1957 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 x v Jnuenhor ANDRE ERNEST MAUZIN v S a Gym/ 7 WIIGHS July 25, 1939. MAUZIN 2,167,081

DEVICE FOR THE CONTINUOUS DETERMINATION AND RECORDING OF THE CANT OF A RAILWAY TRACK Filed Jan. 15, 1937 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 :Jnuen'torfia g g g ANDRE ERNEST MAUZJN' Patented July 25, 1939 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE DEVICE FOR THE CONTINUOUS DETER- MINATION AND' RECORDING OF THE CANT OF A RAILWAY TRACK Andr Ernest Mauzin, Fontenay-aux-Roses, France 5 Claims.

This application is a continuation in part of my pending United States application, Serial No. 33,368, filed July 26, 1935.

The invention has for its object a device for the continuous determination and recording of the cant of a railway track, 1. e., the transverse slope of the track.

At a particular point of a railway track, the warp of this track is defined in the following manner:

Given four points of the track arranged at the angles of a rectangle, of which two points are on each of two lines of rails, the warp is by definition, the vertical distance separating one of these points from the plane made by the three other points.

In practice by way of equivalent definition, if two adjacent axles be considered of the same carriage or of the same carriage bogie, the warp is measured by the angular distance existing at any particular point of the track between the axes of these two axles, capable of taking up different inclinations, each of them in a vertical plane perpendicular to the axis of the track.

According to the present invention, the relative movement of said axles, due to the variation of the warp is recorded mechanically and means are provided to calculate also mechanically therefrom and to record the according variation of the cant.

The invention will be better understood from the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:

Figure l is a diagram showing two records of the variations of the warp and of the corresponding variations of the cant for a given travel of the device along the railway track.

Fig. 2 is a View in perspective of the device intended to transmit to an indicating member,

displacements proportional to each instantaneous value of the warp.

Figs. 3 and 4 are views partly in elevation and partly in transverse sections, made on two planes perpendicular to each other for each of the two figures, and representing the device which transforms the displacements corresponding to the instantaneous values of the warp into displacements proportional to the corresponding instantaneous values of the cant.

The device which forms the object of the invention effects mechanically a transmission of movement which, when the vehicle on which it is installed runs over a track, imparts to a member (which can carry the recording pen of a measuring apparatus) displacements which are at any instant proportional to the value of the warp at the point where the vehicle is at the moment.

In other Words the pen of this recording member traces on a scale which may be fixed as desired by a suitable choice of the ratios of transmission, the upper curve of Fig. l, which shows the variation of the warp G, as a function of the distance travelled e, which may be written G=j(e), a relation which means that G is related to e in a nonlinear manner.

Now since the problem to be solved is the continuous recording of the cant D of the road, also as a function of the distance travelled, it is necessary to add to the device indicating the warp a transformer device capable of effecting the tracing of the curve D=F(e), the ordinates of which give the value of the cant at each point, function F(e) being different from f(e).

It is sufficient to point out that the value of the warp at each point is the particular value given by the differential of the cant divided by the differential of the distance travelled i. e., the slope of the curve D=F( e). Under these conditions the transformer device must be such that its recording member traces the curve D= F(e) (Fig. 1) so that at any point whatever A of the track, the angular coefficient of the curve D=F(e), that is to say the tangent is equal to the corresponding ordinate AB of the curve G=f(e).

In Fig. 2 there are shown two adjacent and parallel axles l, 2, the wheels of which are in contact with the rails of a track, respectively at 3, 4, 5 and 5.

To the extremities of each of the hubs of the axles I and. 2 are attached, for example, by means of the rims of ball bearings 38 mounted at the extremities of the hubs, cables, I, 8, 9 and I which passing over pulleys ll, I2, I3, l4, 15, IE, I! and IS engage in the grooves of two pulleys I9 and 20. Pulleys l9 and 26 are mounted respectively on horizontal idle shafts 2! and 22 which may have a vertical sliding movement according to a shortening or a lengthening of the loops of cables which embrace said pulleys, i. e., with the falling or rising of the ends of axles l and 2. The mounting is such that the cables 1 and I, connected to the hubs which are located at the extremities of the same diagonal pass around the same pulley 20 while the pulley l9 receives the cables 8 and 9 which are connected to the hubs located on the other diagonal.

There are keyed on the shafts 2| and 22 of the pulleys l9 and 20 respectively the pulleys 23 and 24 over which engage respectively other cables 25 and 26, one extremity of which is, for each of them, anchored at a fixed point 21 and 28 and the other extremity of which is, after passing over countershaft pulleys 33 and 34, connected elastically to another fixed point 29 and 30 through the intermediary of springs 3| and 32; There is furthermore hinged on each of the cables 25 and 26 a connecting rod 35'which is itself hinged at its centre to a cross bar 36 which serves as a connection between rod 35 and a sliding member of a devicewhich will be described hereinafter. v v

The whole of the arrangement is mounted on a frame 3! suspended in the carriage body at three points, in such manner as to be made independent of the deformations of said body with respect to the frame. It will be seen that under theconditions which have just been described the cross bar 36 will undergo in the direction of its axis and in one direction or in the opposite direction as compared with the mean position of the connecting rod 35, displacements proportional to the instantaneous value of the warp.

Supposing, for example, a canting of each of the two axles in two opposite directions indicated respectively by the arrows f1 and f2, the transmission members will be drawn in the direction of the arrows shown on the drawings and in the case of a maximum angular displacement the cross bar 35 will undergo a maximum displacement in the direction of the arrow Is. For a maximum cant in opposite directions from that shown by the arrows f1 and h, the direction of all the arrows will be reversedand the cross bar 35 willundergca maximum displacement in the direction opposite to that of the arrow f3, on the other side of its mean position. For intermediate angular distances the compensator system will impart to the cross piece 35 displacements of intermediate extent proportional to the value of these distances apart.

To transform the indications of warp supplied by the displacement of the cross bar 35 into indications of cant, there is used the device shown in Figures 3 and 4.

This deviceis composed essentially of a disc 39 located inthe interior of a casing 40 and keyed at the extremity of a spindle 41 which, through the intermediation of joints such as 42 receives through the pinions 43 and 44, the movement of rotation of one of the axles l2. The result is that the disc 39 is driven proportionately to the distance travelled by the vehicle.

In contact with the plate 39 there is arranged a ball 45 which can take part in two movements in two directions perpendicular to each other:

1st. On the one hand this ball 45 is held in a fitting 46 which mounted on a frame 48 and guided at 4'5 on this frame is only susceptible of a sliding movement in 'a plane parallel to the plane of Figure 3.

2nd. On the other hand the frame 48 slidably mounted in the casing 40-ison1y capable of a sliding movement in a direction perpendicular to the plane of the Figure 3. The ball 45 held between the two rollers 49 and 54 (hinged at 5| to the frame 48) can also participate in the movement of this frame 48.

Finally the frame 48 is directly'connected to the rod 36, the terminal member of the warp indicating device shown on Figure 2.

The result of this arrangement is that the ball 45 is subjected simultaneously to the displacements imparted thereto on the one hand'by the device indicating the warp and on the other hand by the rotation of the disc 39. Under these conditions, it can be demonstrated mathematically that the divergence of the ball from its mean position (centre of the disc), measured parallel to the plane of the Figure 3, gives at each instant an indication proportional to the value of the cant.

For instance, assuming the carriage is about to travel around a turn of the railway track and the outer, rail rises above the level of the other with a slope of, say, 1%, the warp between the axles l and 2 having a given value, frame 48 takes disc 39 and the ball remains motionless at the 1 maximum distance attained from its middle position (for this position of frame 48 the center of the disc). During the last part of the turn, the warp takes an opposite value and frame 48 being displaced on the other side of the center of disc 39, the ball returns to themiddle position, which will be attained at the end of the turn.

The frame 46 has at its upper part a notch in which engages the rod 53 integal with the spindle 54. The displacement of the fitting 45, parallel to the plane of Figure 3, which displacement measures the cant, is transmitted through sectors 55 and 56 and the arm 5'! tea pen 58 which placed in contact with a recording strip traces the curve D f (e) shown at the top of Figure l; the frame 46, owing to the displacements imparted thereto by the warp device can slide along the rod 53 without ceasing to act on the control '5556 of the device registering the cant.

In a similar manner, transmission members 60, BI, 62 connected at 53 to the frame 48, permit the pen 64 to be actuated to trace simultaneously if so desired, the curve representing variations of the warp as a function of the distance travelled (curve G=f (6) shown at the bottom of Figure 1).

I claim: V

1. Device for the continuous determination and recording of the cant of a railway line, comprising a vehicle adapted to travel on said railway line, said vehicle having two adjacent axles capable of assuming various independent inclinations each in a vertical plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the track, means connected to stantaneous angular variations of the axes of the 1 axles relatively to each other into displacements proportional to the value of the corresponding cant, and means cooperating with the transforming means for the graphical inscription of said displacements.

2. Device for the continuous determination and recording of the cant of a railway line, comprising cable transmissions connected to each of the four hubs of two axles of a vehicle, a compensating member with pulleys having a pair of pulleys, each of which receives the cables fixed to two diagonally opposite hubs, a pair of elastic cable connections attached to the pair of pulleys, a rod hinged to the centre of a cross bar connecting together the two elastic cable connections, means co-operating with the said rod to transform the longitudinal displacements of this rod, proportional to the instantaneous angular distances apart, into displacements proportional to the value of the corresponding cant, and means for graphically tracing these displacements.

3. Device for the continuous determination and recording of the cant of a railway track, comprising a vehicle adapted to travel on said railway line, said vehicle having two adjacent axles capable of assuming various independent inclinations each in a vertical plane perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the track, means connected to the axles of said vehicle for determining, on the said vehicle, the relative angular variation existing between the axes of the two axles in the said planes perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the track, a mechanical receiver member on the vehicle, said receiver being subjected to the action of said means and displaced thereby as a function of the angular variation between the two axles which determines the warp of the track, a second receiving member, a transforming member participating both in a displacement imparted by the first-recited receiving member and in a displacement controlled by the travel of the Vehicle for imposing on said second receiving member displacements proportioal to the instantaneous value of the cant, and means for the graphical inscription of said last-mentioned displacements 4. Device for the continuous determination and recording of the cant of a railway line, comprising cable transmissions connected to each of the four hubs of two axles of a vehicle, a compensating member with pulleys having a pair of pulleys, each of which receive the cables fixed to two diagonally opposite hubs, a pair of elastic cab-1e connections attached to the pair of pulleys, a rod hinged at the centre of a cross bar connecting together the two elastic cable connections, a frame capable of a reciprocating movement, connected directly to the said hinged rod, a ball held in a fitting capable of a transverse sliding movement perpendicular to the direction of movement of the frame, a rotary disc, placed in contact with the said ball, members transmitting movement between this disc and one of the axles of the carriage, a recording pen on a continuous band of paper and means for mechanical transmission between the pen and the sliding fitting, for the continuous recording of the cant.

5. Device for the continuous determination and recording of the cant of a railway line, comprising cable transmissions connected to each of the four hubs of two axles of a vehicle, a compensating member with pulleys having a pair of pulleys each of which receives the cables fixed to two diagonally opposite hubs, a pair of elastic cable connections attached to the pair of pulleys, a rod hinged at the centre of a cross bar connecting together the two elastic cable connections, a frame capable of a reciprocating movement, connected directly to the said hinged rod, a ball held in a fitting capable of a transverse sliding movement perpendicular to the direction of movement of the frame, a rotary disc placed in contact with the said ball, members for the transmission of movement between this disc and one of the axles of the carriage, a recording pen on a continuous band of paper, members for the mechanical transmission between the pen and the sliding fitting, for the continuous recording of the cant, a second recording pen and members for the mechanical transmission between this second pen and the frame for the continuous recording of the Warp ANDRE ERNEST MAUZIN. 

